Logos Now... Maybe Later?

My free month of Logos Now is about to expire--I had hoped to use it to check out app.logos.com in its beta form, but I keep seeing "Check Back Soon!" under Documents/Guides/Tools.

How long till those features are functional, even in a beta stage? Days, weeks, months?

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David Taylor, Jr.

My free month of Logos Now is about to expire--I had hoped to use it to check out app.logos.com in its beta form, but I keep seeing "Check Back Soon!" under Documents/Guides/Tools.

How long till those features are functional, even in a beta stage? Days, weeks, months?

Passage Guide and Atlas were made available this week.

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/728843#Comment_728843

Thanks, David--I was wondering about app.logos.com specifically.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/728853#Comment_728853

I was wondering about app.logos.com specifically.

Thats what he was answering. Click under "guides" and "tools" and look for "passage guide" and "atlas"

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/728856#Comment_728856

Ah, I see--I missed that before. Thank you both.

JoshInRI

Isn't this just a way for Faithlife to make us pay to get a free look under the hood every so often?

Is there an advantage to doing this rather than wait for Logos 7.0 or some new base package deal?

What am I missing here?

I do like that they gave access to a couple of commentaries in the latest iteration but if I stop Logos Now - do I lose that access?

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/748623#Comment_748623

Isn't this just a way for Faithlife to make us pay to get a free look under the hood every so often?

No, it's a way to be able to access features you need now rather than waiting and complaining until the next release

Is there an advantage to doing this rather than wait for Logos 7.0 or some new base package deal?

Yes, I get access to the tools now so I can use them now.

What am I missing here?

Most likely a need for the tools. If the current version of Logos 6 meets your needs you don't need Logos Now.

I do like that they gave access to a couple of commentaries in the latest iteration but if I stop Logos Now - do I lose that access?

Yes you do ... and if I recall correctly it is a rotating set of free commentaries resources so that you have access only for a limited period of time even if you subscribe. But I may be wrong on that.

Phil Gons (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/748634#Comment_748634

I recall correctly it is a rotating set of free commentaries so that you have access only for a limited period of time even if you subscribe. But I may be wrong on that.

You're mainly correct. We rotate this free-preview content on the first of each month, but it's not limited to commentaries. Anything is fair game.

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/748644#Comment_748644

Almost a year and a half later and app.logos.com is still in beta. There have been a couple additions since I posted above, but not many. Is it no longer in active development? If it is, is there a roadmap that someone from Faithlife can share?

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/840799#Comment_840799

http://community.logos.com/forums/t/127900.aspx

http://community.logos.com/forums/t/127896.aspx

etc.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/840799#Comment_840799

There have been a couple additions since I posted above, but not many.

I was thinking the opposite! I haven't visited the web app in a while and was quite surprised to see reading plans, highlights, etc. Did you turn on the "experimental resource display"?

Kevin A. Purcell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/840874#Comment_840874

The webapp programmers are likely ....

so busy working on Logos 7 and only get a small percentage of their time to work on it
no very skilled and must be learning on the job
not given the resources they need to make this a robust product
not very plentiful in number with a lone guy working in a back room with very slow DSL connection

I'm of course being a little facetious, but find the slow development of this product very frustrating. It's the number one reason I subscribed to Logos Now. Obviously Logos doesn't see it as a high priority.

I am pleased that I can at least see my Notes files. If I could edit them, then I would start using the webapp a lot more.

BTW to the programmers, I was kidding above and I don't really want to disparage your work. I place 100% of the fault for the glacially slow development on the top level guys who are probably not giving the hardworking programmers the resources they need. I obviously could be wrong. It happened once before. [:)]

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/840799#Comment_840799

Almost a year and a half later and app.logos.com is still in beta.

Logos wiki => https://wiki.logos.com/Mac_Release_Notes_and_History#Mac_Alpha_Pre-Release_Notes_and_History includes Mac Alpha releases when Logos 4 was ported to OS X user interface. Uninformed speculation is web browser port taking a bit longer than three years to deliver Logos 7 functionality.for use in a variety of web browsers on many devices (with vastly different screen sizes).

Keep Smiling [:)]

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/840971#Comment_840971

The webapp programmers are likely ....

Ah, you belong to my Mother's school of thought: I'm not perfect. Once I thought I was mistaken but found I was mistaken.

My serious guess is that what we see as "experimental display" is a reworking of the fundamental structure so that they have a solid design to build on. Without a solid structure, new features collapse so I suspect a great deal of invisible work will suddenly blossom into miraculous progress in the future. Of course, like my Mother, I may be mistaken. [;)]

Alan Palmer (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/840874#Comment_840874

Did you turn on the "experimental resource display"?

There are some very cool new things there that I don't even think have been announced (despite being live on the site). I'll just leave this here: [;)]

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/841380#Comment_841380

[Y]

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/841384#Comment_841384

alabama24: thanks for the tip to "Enable Experimental Resource Display." That gets a couple features closer to something more usable (IMO).

Still, it does seem the priority/resources given to developing the Web app = low. That's fine, but if so, maybe the "beta" Web app shouldn't be a major selling point of Logos Now. Or they could have waited till it was ready before including it as a salient feature of Logos Now. Or....

At any rate--I sincerely was wondering if this was still in active development, and it seems it's at least not abandonware, if not something that's a high priority to develop. Was I mistaken in thinking, though, that Faithlife's goal was for the Web app to at least begin to approach parity with the desktop app?

Biblia.com never officially got out of beta....

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/841431#Comment_841431

I think one small adjustment the devs could make in the meantime is eliminate the "Check back soon!" language. And, actually, to answer my own question, under that line is "We're working on getting all of Logos Bible Software's amazing features working in the new web app" (my emphasis). That has been there since May 2015, which made me think that it would have been gone and replaced with said amazing features by fall 2015 at the latest. So I think it would make a better user experience if they managed expectations more actively, if the Web app isn't going to see updates on a six- or even twelve-week cycle.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/841438#Comment_841438

So I think it would make a better user experience if they managed expectations more actively, if the Web app isn't going to see updates on a six- or even twelve-week cycle.

Thread What's new? includes Faithlife reply:

The development of the Web App is not structured around releases—we ship features and fixes as soon as they are available—so we don't have release notes, per se.

We do typically post in this forum when noteworthy, user-facing changes are made. However, many of the most recent changes have been related to stability, performance, or infrastructure, which are all difficult topics to describe in an exciting manner.

Suggest checking Logos Web App forum periodically.

Keep Smiling [:)]

David Mitchell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/841438#Comment_841438

if the Web app isn't going to see updates on a six- or even twelve-week cycle.

Updates to the web app have, in fact, been shipped to production seven times in the last six weeks. Some of the updates include

The documents menu
Right click menu in experimental resource display
Inline search for experimental resource display
More right click options
Fixes for navigating resource panel history
Better keyboard handling in the library menu

Admittedly, only shipping seven times makes this a rather slow period for app.logos.com (I'd prefer to be shipping twice a week, and earlier this year we had a six week period in which we shipped updates 21 times) because several of our developers were helping out with new features for Logos 7—but you should start to see some of those new features carry over to the web app in the not-too-distant future. (the updates to text comparison are likely to come first)

However, the desktop application is very large and has been under continuous development for over 20 years (or "just" ten if you only consider the current generation of the application). Our goal is still to bring all of the features to the web as soon as we can, but this is no small task.

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/841512#Comment_841512

Thank you, David, this is helpful to know. I don't know the first thing about developing an app, and I'm sure it's harder than it looks.

So maybe the solution here is to just ditch the "Check back soon!" language, which I would think would be less of a constraint for devs to labor under, and produce less disappointment in users who still await much of the desktop functionality in the Web app.

David Mitchell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/841523#Comment_841523

Thank you, David, this is helpful to know. I don't know the first thing about developing an app, and I'm sure it's harder than it looks.

So maybe the solution here is to just ditch the "Check back soon!" language, which I would think would be less of a constraint for devs to labor under, and produce less disappointment in users who still await much of the desktop functionality in the Web app.

I will discuss this suggestion with the people who would need to approve it.

Kevin A. Purcell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/841526#Comment_841526

Ditch the "check back soon" language won't change anything. Faster development of useful features like Interlinear support with the ability to open words in original language tools with a click or right click. Notes editing and highlighting in the web app will make it more useful. If the app had those two features I'd shut up and not really need another feature, although I'd like more. I guess I had an expectation that such things would be in there by now since they're so fundamental to the way most people use bible software in general.